


It Might Take a Miracle

by waknatious



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/F, Swan Queen - Freeform, Swan Queen Advent Calendar 2019 (Once Upon a Time)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:06:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21568102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waknatious/pseuds/waknatious
Summary: It's time to decorate the Charming Family Christmas tree.......
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills & Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan
Comments: 27
Kudos: 48
Collections: Swan Queen Advent Calendar Collection 1





	It Might Take a Miracle

**Author's Note:**

> Helloooooo all my little Swenling elves who love Christmas things! I've wanted to write one of these for yeeeearsss, to combine my favorite ship with my favorite season :) When this calendar event was announced I JUMPED AT THE CHANCE!
> 
> Oh! And this is a gift for @savingophelia because one of the items in her list of headcanons inspired it :)  
> (I wish I could figure out how to hyperlink that in this stupid notes box..... help?)
> 
> Anyway - on with the shenanigans. Enjoy!

**It Might Take a Miracle  
**

**A Swan Queen Scene**

Emma calls it “Christmas juice.” It’s her holiday fuel; a crutch perhaps, but everyone has his or her way of dealing with an overabundance of parties, well-wishers coming out of the woodwork, and mandatory family gatherings.

It’s Bailey’s Irish Creme. That’s all it is. Pour it over ice, put on some Ella Fitzgerald, and poof… Christmas Juice.

She never pours one just for herself; it’s a minimum-of-two thing. She pours one for herself and one for whomever she’s likely been coerced into dealing with, making it like a “social lubricant.” Or maybe she pours a couple for the team, when they’re uniting against a common foe. A common foe such as a tree to be decorated, for instance.

Tonight the team was Emma and Regina.

_-  
_

As the door to the diner jingled shut behind her, Snow could see that her daughter was indeed here for breakfast as she had hoped, seated next to her best friend. They were shoulder to shoulder as Emma shared something on her phone, and they were both grinning from ear to ear over whatever it was. Honestly it warmed her heart to see it, more so than it typically would. She chalked it up “superfluous holiday cheer” and walked to their table. 

“Emma. Hi.” she said, and the pair looked up from Emma’s phone, still smiling.

“Oh, hey mom,” said Emma.

“Regina,” said Snow, and inclined her head in greeting.

“Snow.”

“I apologize for interrupting your breakfast, but Emma would you like to come over this evening to help with family decorating? I know we talked about this weekend, but I have to help David at the shelter on Saturday, and Sunday is now Archie’s get-together and I really don’t want to put it off for another week.”

Emma successfully suppressed a groan and put her phone to sleep on its way to her coat pocket, while Regina brought her coffee cup to her mouth to cover a smirk, shifting her eyes just enough to watch Emma in her peripheral vision.

It didn’t go unnoticed, and Snow flushed a bit. “Could you?” she asked. “I know it’s short notice. Did you already have plans?”

“Uh…” Emma stalled, but then grabbed her own coffee and looked back up with a smile. “Yeah, y’know what, sure Mom. Why not.”

“Oh good! I do have Neal, but I’m sure with both of us there we can still get a lot done. I’ll have your father do all the garlands and lights around the apartment over the next couple of evenings, so really if we could just do the tree that would be lovely.”

“Yeah mom, okay.”

Regina cleared her throat softly. “Would you like me to watch Neal while you two decorate?”

That caught Snow off guard. “Wh-what, really? You would?”

“Of course. I’m sure I can keep him out of your hair while you spend some nice holiday time with your daughter.” She immediately brought the coffee cup to her mouth again while Emma grimmaced and gave her some very serious side-eye. “Shall we come by around seven or so?” 

Emma sent her eyes back to her coffee, but her eyebrows disobeyed the internal order and went straight for the ceiling. _We? ‘We’ come by?_

“Oh... you’ll come with Emma to the apartment? That would save me the time of packing up his things and bringing him to your house, I guess? Thank you Regina.”

“Of course dear. We’ll see you this evening.”

“Yes. That’s… yes, okay.... thank you,” said Snow, and with an odd tilt of her head and a glance between the two of them she turned and left the diner.

“Gosh, thanks for the support. R’gina.”

“What. You had already agreed to go over there… I’m saving you. I’m your _Saaaviorrr_ …..”

Emma snorted and gave the brunette a nudge with her elbow. “Fine, yeah, okay. I shall gird my loins and steel myself for ‘nice holiday time with my mother’.”

Regina gave her a wink. “Christmas Juice, Emma…”

Emma gasped and her face brightened. “Christmas Juiccccccce! Yassss… you _are_ my Savior.”

“I’ll pick you up at six forty-five. My car has an actual heater in it.”

“Jerk.”

“Yes dear.”

“I’m bringing two bottles.”

“Not a terrible idea. I find that whiskey makes your mother more tolerable. How many have you squirrelled away by now?”

“I have five. Jerry said he’d order four more to come in by Friday when I bought the last three he had. I said make it eight.”

“Eight?”

“Yeah, the bottles are small, after tonight I’m down to three, and it’s only December 2nd.”

“Oh dear.”

“Don’t ‘oh-dear’ me Regina. It’s my one holiday crutch let me have it.” She slid out of the red vinyl booth and wedged a few bills under the edge of her coffee cup.

“Well, there’s als-”

“Aaaaht’” said Emma with a finger raised in warning. “Pick me up at six forty-five. Wear that red sweater you wore last Sunday.”

It was Regina’s turn to do eyebrows. “Do you always dictate a dress code for your dates?”

That elicited another snort. “... ‘dates’... nice. See ya later R’gina.”

_-_

They arrived at the apartment at precisely seven o’clock. _Of course_ , Snow thought to herself, because Regina had car keys in her hand. She looked exquisite as usual, and Snow smoothed a hand over her own denim housefrau dress self-consciously. A bright red cashmere sweater shone through the open coat she wore, which was a long black woolen number with glossy buttons. The sweater brought out the red of her lipstick, and the deep black of the coat emphasized the glossiness of her hair as it reflected the porch light. Emma stood slightly behind her clutching a brown paper shopping bag. 

“Good evening, Snow,” said Regina, and her eyes widened ever so slightly for a fraction of a second as she glanced over Snow’s shoulder at the pile of cardboard boxes open all over the room behind her, but Snow caught it right away.

Snow swallowed her embarrassment and forced a smile. “Good evening, Regina.” she replied. “Emma,” she nodded.

“Hi Mom,” said Emma with a genuine smile. “Ready to do some holiday cheer stuff?”

“Thank you Sweetheart, yes. Please come in, both of you. Thank you again, Regina.”

Regina sauntered in and surveyed the chaos as Emma headed for the kitchen island with her shopping bag (which revealed its contents audibly as she set it down). Regina turned to Snow with another polite smile. “And where is my young charge?”

“Oh, he’s apparently decided to take a long nap. You have a momentary reprieve. May I take your coat?”

“No need, dear,” Regina replied. She lifted her heavy coat off her shoulders and glanced back over her right to Emma, who was already walking toward her and reaching for it. The blonde lifted it from her shoulders and headed for the pegs next to the door. “Thank you, Emma” said Regina as she straightened and patted and smoothed her sweater and black pencil skirt.

“No problem, babe,” said Emma as she hung the coat. Halfway through turning back around she seemed to realize what she’d just said. She cocked her head to the side for a second, but shook it off and headed back toward the kitchen. It was Snow’s turn to do the eyebrows thing as she continued to rummage through the boxes next to the couch.

“Okay, Christmas Juice time. Who’s in?” asked Emma as she pulled three lowball glasses from the cabinets.

“Oh none for me thank you,” said Snow.

“Nonsense, the one in my hand is already yours,” said Emma as she scooped ice from the freezer drawer. “Regina?”

“I’d love to but perhaps not, I’m the babysitter when Neal wakes up.”

“Right, extra ice it is then. Yours will have like, almost no booze in it.” There were more loud, scooping and scraping noises from behind the freezer door, until Emma glanced back into the room to find dual glares of disapproval. “Oh c’mon you guys…”

Regina laughed at the look on her face. “Very well. Thank you, dear.”

Snow conjured a smile as well. “Holiday cheer it is then.” She would need to have a serious talk with her full grown daughter about using alcohol as a coping mechanism. 

Emma grinned and scooped a third glass of ice for herself, filled all three with said coping mechanism, and brought them around to the other side of the island. “Knew you’d see it my way,” she said as she carefully disengaged the trio of glasses from her grip and passed them around, “this is gonna be fun.” Glasses clinked all around as the three raised them. “Cheers you guys - Happy Holidays,” she said with a bright smile.

Regina leaned into Emma and wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a quick side hug, while Emma looked at her… _adoringly?_ In the close space the three made, all Snow could manage was an awkward rub on the side of Emma’s arm below Regina’s hand.

It was... really awkward.

“Well!” Emma said, and strode over to the first pile of open boxes. “Ok, whadda we got here…” She began to rummage through the tissue wrapping and ornament boxes. “Oh! The little glass birds! I remember these from last year, I love getting them to sit right by a bulb and sparkle light all over the place!” She grabbed a little bluebird in a woven glass nest and took it to the tree, looking for its perfect spot. 

Regina rummaged through another box on top of the stack by the couch. “Snow, some of these are really lovely! I guess I never looked closely at your tree before…” She draped a spun glass snowman across her palm, holding it by the string in her other hand, and walked toward the tree.

Snow beamed. “Why thank you. I always try t-”

“Emma, look how cute…”

“to… find unique ones that still fit the….”

“Aww?!” said Emma. The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder, cooing over the little thing.

“the… overall theme… idea… thing.” Snow trailed off with a look of defeat on her face.

“I’m going to find some like this for our tree!” said Regina.

“Good idea! Henry will love fitting them in with his nutcracker army,” said Emma.

Just as Snow thought she might grab a few ornaments and join them, Neal made fussing noises in the other room. Regina turned around with a smile. “Looks like babysitter duty starts now?”

“No, that’s okay, let me get him up and change his diaper first,” Snow replied with a polite smile of her own.

“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

“No, you two go ahead and keep unwrapping ornaments, and… things.”

“Very well, dear.”

“...hur-hur… you said ‘doody’” Emma supplied helpfully. 

Regina lolsnorted and smacked her. “Child.”

“Yes, in this setting, I am the child.”

They giggled. 

_Giggled_.

As soon as Snow was safely turned all the way round and headed for the bedroom-side of the loft, she rolled her eyes as hard and high as she could. She lifted her youngest from the bassinet and laid him gently on the corner of the bed. “How’s my most favorite little baby boy, hmm? Did you have a nice nap, my love?”

As she unsnapped his onesie and got ready to pull off his bloated wet diaper she heard more ice scooping noises from the tray in the freezer. _Must be time for round two._

“No thank, you Emma, not right now.” 

“Aw, come on.” <scrape, scrape>

“Emma…”

“Oh stop, it’s all ice again you’re fine… look, watch how fast your glass fills up…” 

Regina nearly… _cackled_?... at that. “You’re amazing.”

“Yes. I. Am.”

There was then, of course, more giggling. _Giggling!!_

The mirth was contagious, and Snow found herself smiling despite her mild annoyance. _How did I not notice this before? This is sooooo obvious._ There was more witty banter wafting in from the living room as she wrapped up the diaper change process, and she found herself almost chuckling a few times. She smiled quietly to herself and shook her head. 

When Snow walked back out of the bedroom area, it occurred to her that it was suddenly significantly quieter in the room, and the two women were standing with their backs to her and speaking in hushed tones. When Emma snorted and doubled over, she couldn’t take it any longer and had to ask.

“Ladies?”

“Oh… haha… we’re just… arranging the elves.”

“Emma, please tell me the elves aren’t having sex with each other on my tree.”

“Mom!” Emma exclaimed, all wide-eyed innocence as she scooted in front of the tree. “Would I do that?”

“You? Maybe not. But put the two of you together lately… there’s no telling.”

Regina snickered. “I’m a bad influence on your daughter?”

“Yes! You’re evil! This is all your fault!” Emma said, pointing to two elves joined at the hips, front and center on the tree. She and Regina shared a look for about a two and a half seconds… then burst into fits of laughter.

“Oh my god…”

“Sorry mom, we’ll be good.”

“Yes, Snow. My apologies.”

“Why does this seem like I just caught two of my seventh graders drawing gonads on the chalkboard…”

Emma thought about that for a moment. “Uh, ‘cause there’s actually no such thing as grownups?” Regina gave that a thoughtful side nod and took a generous swig of her irish creme.

“Oh my god.”

Regina laughed and set her glass on a coaster. “I’ve been shirking my responsibility; shall I prepare a bottle for the little one?”

“No I’m already in the kitchen, I’ve got it.”

“Snow dear, I-”

“No. You two hooligans can disengage my elves from each other,” Snow said as she opened the refrigerator door with one arm while cradling an infant in her other. “I’ll warm up a bottle.”

She watched them turn back to the tree and assess their progress, noting and pointing out bare spots here, and other areas where things were maybe too bunched up there, instantly reengaged with each other. 

_My god they’re both so happy,_ she thought to herself. _Are they... dating?_

 _Oh my god they’re dating._ She was momentarily miffed about that. 

_And didn’t tell me..._

Well…

 _No, Emma would tell me…_

Regina noticed that bottle preparation noises had stopped behind her and glanced back to find her staring. Snow gave her a careful smile, but the brunette removed her hand from the small of Emma’s back anyway.

_Oh… Okay, they’re basically all but dating and Emma doesn’t realize it?_

She moved around the island with the readied bottle and sat in the rocking chair with Neal, watching the two of them move back and forth between the boxes and the tree, threading in and out of each other’s space with a comfortable grace that looked like a choreographed dance.

“You guys it’s looking really lovely. Thank you for helping.”

“Mom, aren’t you going to do some of this? Hand over the munchkin to the babysitter! I’ll get you a drink!” The ornament in Regina’s hand paused almost imperceptibly on its way to the tree as she hung it.

“No. Please continue. At this point the sitting feels really nice. It’s been a long week, and I guess I’m more tired than I thought I was.” She looked down and offered the bottle to Neal’s eager lips, and he latched on hungrily. As she began to rock him, she felt the long day starting to drain away in the comfortable and familiar rhythm. “In fact, this little one is probably going to zonk out halfway through his evening bottle, and I’m going to be right behind him.”

Emma turned around with a pouty face. “Aw, this was supposed to be ‘family decorating’...”

“This _is_ family decorating. We’re all family here, including Regina.” Regina’s eyes met hers with a warm smile. “You two please continue. I’m having a lovely time just watching, honestly.” She looked down at the baby again and rubbed his chin gently with her thumb, waking him so he would continue to eat. “Emma honey, could you put on the Ella Fitzgerald record?”

“Vinyl, or the new cd?”

“The vinyl record; it’s my favorite. At this point the pops and crackles are part of it.”

“Sure mom. Coming right up... Your glass R’gina?” She made a ‘gimme’ gesture and snapped her fingers impatiently. Regina picked up her glass, drained it, jingled the half-melted ice and handed it over. 

“Good girl,” Emma said with a smug grin, which earned her a smirk and some side-eye. She sauntered off to the kitchen, with a smirk to match back over her shoulder, and started the next round. When she’d filled them, she brought them to the living room and walked over to the side table to put on the requested record.

Decorating continued, including Emma precariously perched on the small step ladder a couple of times. The giggling in hushed tones picked back up here and there, but at least they tried to be quiet about it with the baby in the room, and at some point before the first side of the Ella record finished, Snow dozed off. She briefly came to a couple of times and noticed that the record had been changed - there was Nat King Cole once, Tony Bennett another time. During a Judy Garland record she awoke to Regina carefully extracting Neal from her arms with a gentle, “Shhhh… no you stay, I’ve got him dear.” She smiled and dozed off again, comfortable and warm under the plush throw that one of them had draped over her sometime earlier.

_Hissssss <pop>... Hissssss<pop>... Hissssss<pop>... _

Some time later, Snow awoke to the sound of the old turntable stuck at the end of a record. The baby monitor hissed quietly on the end table too, but beside that, there were no other sounds in the loft. 

As she sat up a little straighter and rubbed her eyes, she looked around to find her house guests. They were at the far end of the couch. Emma’s head was back against the cushions and she snored quietly, her left arm stretched out across the armrest, and the phone in her hand threatening to slip and clatter to the floor. Her right arm was loosely draped across Regina’s shoulders, and the brunette was dead asleep in her lap, hugging Emma’s thighs like a pillow. Regina’s legs were tucked up behind her, and her cherry red Louboutin’s were under the edge of the coffee table. 

A glance back to the kitchen revealed that the second bottle of “christmas juice” had at least been started. Here in the living room two half-empty glasses, milky white with melted ice, sat on coasters just within reach of the sleeping couple.

 _The sleeping couple…_ Snow thought to herself. _We Charmings are a dense lot, aren’t we Emma_...

She gathered the throw blanket from her lap and stood up from the old rocking chair, as quietly as she could with her knees protesting their long-bent state. After wincing the first few steps, she padded silently over to the couch. As gently as she could, she spread the throw blanket over the two of them and removed Emma’s phone from her hand. 

“Merry Christmas, you lovely hooligans,” she whispered, and gave each a feathery kiss on the forehead. Regina stirred lightly, frowning in her sleep and squeezing tighter around Emma’s lap. Emma didn’t wake, but unconsciously hugged more tightly around Regina’s shoulders, causing the brunette to smile in her sleep as she drifted back into a deep slumber.

“It’s about time, right?” said David from behind her, as he lifted the tone arm off the record and switched off the player.

Snow gasped and spun around with her hand over her heart. “David!” she whisper-shouted, “You startled me. When did you get back?”

“About five minutes ago. You were asleep,” he said with a smile, and moved to wrap her up in a hug. As they embraced he noted the tree. “It looks like the evening was a success? The tree looks great.”

“Mmm,” Snow hummed from where she was buried in his chest. “And you? All done shopping?”

“Yes. For once I won’t be running around like an idiot on Christmas Eve.”

“Speaking of idiots…”

“Yes. These two… how do we feel about this?”

Snow turned herself around in his embrace and resettled his arms around her shoulders, rubbing a hand absently along his forearm as she regarded her daughter wrapped up in the embrace of their former nemesis.

“Honestly David, I’ve never seen your daughter happier.” She thought about that for a second more, and, “You know what? Regina either,” she added with a sigh. “I hate to say it, but I think we have no choice but to condone this madness.”

“I do believe you’re right, my love,” said David, and squeezed her shoulders firmly. “I’ve been watching this happen for a while now… has she figured it out yet?”

“Emma?”

“Mm-hm.”

“I don’t think so, no,” said Snow, and shook her head sadly, but with a compassionate smile on her face. “Let’s hope she takes her girlfriend’s hint when she wakes up sharing a blanket?”

“It’ll be a Christmas Miracle if she does…”

“You’re right,” said Snow, and leaned her head back to place a kiss under his jaw. “Merry Christmas, Charming.”

“Merry Christmas, Snow.”

_fin_

**Author's Note:**

> That's it!  
> :)  
> I hope you all have a lovely holiday season, in what ever way you choose to celebrate it.  
> And if this is a tough time of the year for you, like it is for so many people, I really really hope this brightened your day just a little bit.
> 
> Thank you to the SQ Advent Calendar team for the opportunity :)  
> VvLSQ!!!!!!!! and Merry Christmas, Swen!


End file.
